Standardized testing is back as a required element of Dartmouth's undergraduate application. The return of those three infamous letters (take your pick, SAT or ACT) as an admissions requirement was not universally cheered by prospective applicants, but I have a different—and hopefully reassuring—take. Imagine your score is a personal asset rather than a barrier. And importantly, imagine that your score is likely "stronger" than you think. Let me explain.
People like numbers. A number represents something concrete; it is an objective definition. For example, a 100 on an exam means you answered all the questions correctly. That meaning is straightforward. Alas, the value of every number on the admissions scorecard is not as universally true as that. Sometimes, a degree of context is required.
Standardized testing is a contextualized statistic: each 1150, 1300, or 1510, or maybe a 32 or 36, does not convey the same information to an admissions officer as we read a file. You're thinking, "Huh?" Set aside the notion that a score is "high" or "low" based on where it falls on the College Board's 800 to 1600 continuum or the ACT's 36-point range. Ignore the spectrum of reported scores on the admissions profile at Dartmouth and other institutions. The big reveal: There is elasticity to the determination of score quality.
A Dartmouth admissions officer considers each score relative to the average scores at an applicant's high school. So, a score that falls below Dartmouth's overall class mean (or average) might be several hundred points above the mean at the student's school. In that example, that score is "high," and as such it has real value as an evaluative factor in our holistic assessment. Conversely, another student might attend a school where the average scores fall towards the upper end of the 1600 or 36 score ranges on the two standardized tests. Most folks would consider such a score as "high," and it is. But, as an informative element, that score is not as additive as the first example. Every score reflects the place where it originates.
That is how we consider testing at Dartmouth. Our awareness of environmental factors, including the range of family incomes and the degree of opportunity and resources available at a student's high school and in their community more broadly, frame the way we evaluate a score. Context counts. Testing reflects context. "High" and "low" are more nuanced than conventional wisdom suggests.
Indeed, as we considered Dartmouth's post-pandemic testing policy, a group of faculty researchers confirmed that standardized testing—when assessed using the local norms at a student's high school—is valuable. They found that high school grades paired with standardized testing are the most reliable indicators for success in Dartmouth's rigorous course of study. They also found that test scores represent an especially valuable tool to identify high-achieving applicants from low and middle-income backgrounds; those who are first-generation college-bound; as well as students from urban and rural backgrounds.
The faculty study reinforced Dartmouth's longstanding practice of considering testing within our broader understanding of the whole person, a "holistic" admissions process used at Dartmouth for over a century. Testing is one data point among many in that process. It is an opportunity to identify students who are the top performers in their high schools and communities, wherever they might be. Testing is not the primary factor in your application. It coexists with the other factors and variables. In fact, it depends on them for its meaning and value.
The whole person counts, and that person hails from a place. The environmental factors of that place are the truth each person navigates. We respect that and we celebrate that. So should you.
Resist the urge to look at a college's mean score or the middle 50-percent range and conclude, "My scores are awesome" or "I am doomed." Ask your college counselor what the average score is at your school and consider your score accordingly. The higher your score lands above your local norm, the more impact that score could have on your application.
To use a math pun, you are the sum of more than a test. And a test without context loses its essential proof point.
Photograph by Jared Leeds
